During my time off, I learnt a lot. The time offline really gave me an opportunity to reflect and get really honest with myself. Perhaps the most significant realisation was why I was struggling to find the inspiration and motivation to blog and 'go pro'. The week before I stopped blogging I had sent out an email to my subscribers declaring my intention to, in the words of Steven Pressfield, 'go pro'. B-School had just started again and I was genuinely really excited to go through the course and really implement everything into my blog and business.
But then (ba ba bowww) I crashed. I was literally exhausted because I had spent the last 2 years with my wheels spinning, trying to find some traction to propel me forward. I was trying to create the life of freedom, passion and creativity I wanted and to become the person I've always wanted to be.
I just couldn't do it anymore. It all caught up with me and I was forced to face some things in myself and in my life that I had been avoiding. It was quite intense and I just couldn't find the motivation to blog or do B-School. Luckily I had enough insight to realise that I was feeling this way for a reason so I honored it and gave myself permission to have a break, while I explored what was really going on.
In my exploration I dug up one of the most valuable insights.
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Blogging had become a means to an end for me.
It was the means by which I would be able to create a thriving online business, which was the means by which I would achieve a life of freedom, location independence, passion, creativity, financial abundance, travel, connection and inspiration.
When we are solely motivated by the attainment of something external to ourselves, something we see as currently lacking in our life we become graspy and dare I say desperate. Everything we do between here and the goal is reduced to a means to an end.
That's when the process of building a blog and online business becomes a burden. We can't help feeling resentful of and therefore resistant to 'all these things we have to do' in order to get from A to Z.
The other thing that also often happens, as it did to me, is that we get so overwhelmed by this mammoth to do list that we don't know where or how to start. We then feel stuck and end up not taking any serious action. We might do little bits, but we stay small.
As you can see this is quite the opposite of the life of freedom, creativity, passion, location independence and financial abundance that most of us bloggers and entrepreneurs are seeking.
We are missing the point
When we fall into this trap, we become disconnected from the reason we started in the first place. We disconnect from our desire to make a positive difference in peoples lives. We lose sight of the burning message and passion we have within us that we feel called to share.
Things get flipped upside down so that it's no longer about sharing your message, but about getting. Getting readers, getting customers / clients, getting recognition, getting money, getting a google ranking, getting subscribers, getting a reputation, getting the lifestyle.
Now I'm not saying that those things aren't important. I'm not denying that you need them in order to have a successful blog and/or online business. My point is that we must stay firmly grounded in the why. Why you are doing this work, what you feel called to share.
At the end of the day it's about the work you are called to, it's not about you. When we make it about ourselves, that's when we get wrapped up in metrics, overwhelmed by our to do lists, desperate for the achievement of goals and driven by a need to 'prove ourselves'.
Come back to your why. What is your passion? What is it you've been called to share? Share in the comments below.
Nicola x x
P.S. If you have enjoyed this post and found it useful, I would so appreciate it if you shared it with your friends.
